Mayor Zohran Mamdani Takes Legal Action to Block $10K Payments to NYC School Aides

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is suing to block a pay boost for thousands of school paraprofessionals.

According to a report the New York Post published on Wednesday, August 19, the 34-year-old’s administration filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court to block a new law granting roughly 25,000 city paraprofessionals up to $10,000 in additional compensation. The law took effect that same day without the mayor’s signature after passing the City Council unanimously last month.

The lawsuit, filed by the city’s Assistant Corporation Counsel Zachary Ellis, argues the measure — known as the “Respect for Paraprofessionals” law — ignores “nearly sixty years of well-established collective bargaining process under the Taylor Law,” which requires public employers and unions to negotiate compensation directly, per the report.

The city pegs the eventual price tag at $324.9 million, with the filing calling it a “conservative estimate,” and warns the payout “has set a perilous and unlawful precedent with huge fiscal consequences for the DOE and the City — and, by extension, the tax-paying public.”

The outlet reported that Mamdani’s spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach echoed that argument, calling collective bargaining “a fundamental pillar of a fair economy” and accusing the Council of passing legislation that “undermines collective bargaining and sets a dangerous precedent: allowing politicians to bypass workers and their unions and dictate the terms of employment themselves.” He added that “a one-time payment does not solve the underlying, long-term pay inequities facing paraprofessionals.”

Per the New York Post, the lawsuit marks a reversal from Mamdani’s campaign trail, where he stood alongside UFT President Michael Mulgrew last year while accepting the union’s endorsement and promised to “continue to support the passage of” of the law, which “addresses the fact that there are too many open positions right now for paraprofessionals across the city because that job simply doesn’t pay enough.”

Council Speaker Julie Menin, who co-sponsored the bill with Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, defended the law in a joint statement, per New York Post, noting paraprofessionals “are earning as little as $32,000 a year” and calling it “the fiscally responsible thing to do.”

Mulgrew, for his part, said the union anticipated a legal fight. “We are prepared for this. The bill was drafted carefully to ensure that it does not violate the state Taylor Law,” he said, adding paraprofessionals can expect their $10,000 payout in four installments starting January 1, 2027.

As Globe previously reported, Mamdani is facing separate backlash over the rollout of his new pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes worth $5 million or more. At a three-hour City Council hearing, per the New York Post, one Upper East Side resident said he was wrongly billed $58,000 after the city’s records incorrectly listed his own apartment as a non-primary residence — a notice he only discovered after it was mistakenly delivered to a neighbor — while real estate agents rallied outside with signs reading “Guilty until proven resident.”